


A fresh start

by armethaumaturgy



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Abuse, Anxiety, Bullying, Hybrid AU, M/M, Multi, Racism, its the whole cocktail!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 14:24:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4438886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armethaumaturgy/pseuds/armethaumaturgy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flowers were something Ray was supposed to chew on; he wasn’t supposed to be one, and he wasn’t supposed to be chewed on.<br/>But fate wouldn’t have it any other way, the selfish bitch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A fresh start

**Author's Note:**

> This work was done for the 2014 RT secret santa on tumblr, I'm just uploading it here for convenience and organisation.  
> The recipient for this story was [teamwaffle-o](teamwaffle-o.tumblr.com).

It started before he even knew what it meant, what discrimination even was. He was just four, for fuck’s sake! And yet, when he asked his mom why the other kids in kindergarden wouldn’t let him play with them, she only smiled sadly at him and told him to leave them alone. She told him to not play with them and then she bought him a new toy truck.

And he didn’t. He played alone with his new truck that had a wide range of noises that never ceased to amaze him.

It continued when he started grade school, when he sat alone in the back of the small classroom. He continued to ignore the painful pang in his heart when everyone around him played and it was only him and that hamster girl left. Even she didn’t ever play with him, opting to stick her head into heaps of books and ignore every attempt of starting a conversation from Ray.

When he told his mom, she sighed sadly and told him to stay home while she went shopping. She returned with a colorful box and gave it to him, promising him ‘that it was better than they could ever be’.

He didn’t believe her at first - how much fun could a small square with buttons be? -, but when he managed to catch his first Pokemon and his eyes shined with happiness mirrored by the wide smile on his young face, he gave his mom all the credit she deserved and then some.

He played with it every day, heedless to the other kids’ laughter and cries. He was in his little world, capturing Pokemons. And he caught them all, in all of the games, to be precise. He then asked his mom to buy him more games and she happily obliged, taking him to the shopping mall with her so he could pick whatever games his small heart ached for.

Games became his friends. Well, not the games, but the characters. He went on countless adventures with his friends and it more than made up for the lack of hybrid interaction.

Yet, when he started high school, his whole life took a U-turn for the worst.

The older kids in his school found it funny to pick on him, shoving him against the lockers (and goddamn it hurt, the metal clashing against the small of his back), knocking books and game consoles out of his hands (and goddamn did it make his heart stop for a few painful seconds, the game consoles, that is), tugging on his ears (and goddamn did that hurt as well! He’d gladly take the shoves instead) and calling him names (and goddamn, did it sting, because he had to be a gay, he just had to, had to! There was nothing he could do about it, and it fucking hurt). It was slightly hypocritical that they called him gay, what with all the things they did to him.

Day after day, Ray returned home with some sort of a bruise, be it on his body or in his mind (but usually both). It didn’t matter, they stung the same (or maybe not; the words did cut a bit deeper, after all). He hid them from his mom, not wanting to make her worry. She already had enough oh her platter, being alone and having to take care of him, and he most definitely did not want to burden her with his stupid teenage problems as well. So he kept his bruises hidden, both behind long and baggy clothes and a carefully forged neutral mask that he wore on his face everyday.

Back straight, hands clenched, face checked, mouth shut. That became his motto, the mantra that he repeated to himself over and over again whenever he was faced with pain, with problems, with bullies.

And it worked, partially. Though it didn’t lessen the physical or mental hurt, it gave him something to focus on instead of the blows. He had most problems with the face part, keeping his face neutral and without any signs of pain was unsurprisingly very hard, no matter how much time he had to practice.

The routines, the habits, the mantra, they stuck with him long after he was out of high school. He kept to himself, he stayed inside mostly. He had such luck, his love for video games presenting him with a job opportunity he couldn’t let down (wouldn’t let down in a million years); recording let’s plays and game guides. His acquired skills allowed him to make good and easily understood videos and his happiness was through the roof with every single person that subscribed to his YouTube channel.

His life was good; it was great, dare he say it. So when he was offered a job at Roosterteeth, he had every excuse to say 'no’. But why would he do that, when he could move and lift a small burden off of his mom’s shoulders? And so he did; accepted the job and packed and was going to Austin, Texas.

He couldn’t’ve been more excited.

There would be new people, new friends (hopefully) and new experiences. Yes, he was excited, but he was also very, very anxious. New people meant new threats, new danger that would lay dormant behind every corner.

He really did not want to think about that, though, not when he was hundreds and hundreds of meters up in the air in a (very bright and very full) tin can.

He couldn’t lie about being glad to finally land. The plane was making him feel a little more than unnerved, with some predators glaring at him the whole time. _Goddamnit, you’re a grown man!_ , he scolded himself mentally.

He took his luggage from the designated area and made his way out of the airport. A tall man waved him over. Thick horns curled themselves on the mop of his dark hair; Ray bit his lip, but stepped closer, nonetheless. The man had tattooed arms, Ray saw when he got closer.

“Hey, you’re Ray, right?” he asked; his voice was devoid of any malice that Ray expected. Maybe his mind was really fucked up.

“Yeah,” the Puerto Rican nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Ray. I’m Geoff, and I’ll be your new boss.” Geoff outstretched a hand for a handshake. Ray flinched slightly, stepping from foot to foot. If Geoff noticed (how could he have not?), he said nothing, letting his hand fall to his side.

He motioned to a car parked next to them. “I can drive you home or show you the offices right away,” he offered.

“Could you just give me a ride home?”

Geoff nodded and motioned for Ray to slip into the passenger seat. Ray did so, after putting his bags into the back. He fiddled with his hands, eyes trained to the city scenery they passed. The ride was quiet, too quiet, and made Ray gnaw on his bottom lip consistently. He never wanted to do this again, he thought. He had no way of knowing what went through Geoff’s head during the ride, and he didn’t like that.

Geoff drove him to his new apartment - well, _new_ – and left him with instructions on how to get to work the next morning; just a few blocks up the road and to the left, or something. Ray would wing it; easy enough.

The Puerto Rican watched as Geoff drove off, and when the car was not in sight anymore, he opened the front door and called for the elevator. He pressed the button for the fourth floor and patiently waited as the old elevator slowly ascended the apartment block. Tina was generous enough to let him live with her. Honestly, she was way more excited for him to move than even he was. And Ray himself was glad she did, it made him not worry about buying or renting an apartment and he got to meet his best online friend in person!

Him and Tina got to know each other through dumb Reddit posts and quickly became friends. Skype calls filled every free moment they had.

Ray stepped out of the elevator as it dinged, pulling his bags after him. He looked at the nameplates on the apartments until he found Tina’s. He pressed the doorbell and couldn’t help the grin that was spreading on his face. Tina was just behind this door. He could hear her exclaiming that ‘she’ll be there in a second!’

The door swung open and Tina was standing inside, clad in just a shirt and shorts that were almost invisible under the length of the obviously too big T-shirt, and sporting a smile splitting her face in two. “Ray!” she yelled and flung herself at him.

He was entangled by long arms and he couldn’t keep from toppling over. Tina ended up on top of him, and when she pulled away after Ray told her that she was too fat and he couldn’t breathe, she was still grinning from ear to ear. Ray was sure he was mirroring her, because his cheeks were starting to hurt.

“Did you have a nice flight? Why didn’t you call, I could’ve come to pick you up!” she said, standing up and pulling him to his feet as well.

“Yeah, the flight was okay,” he muttered. He didn’t really want to mention all the glances and anxiousness to her. “But Geoff, my new boss, came to get me.”

“Okay then. You must be tired, come in,” she said as if she just noticed they were still in the hallway, no doubt disturbing someone.

Ray followed her inside, picking up the last two remaining bags from the floor; he didn’t even notice her taking some. She led him down a hallway and into a room on the right. “This is your new room. You can unpack later, for now, come on!” She tugged him out just as he set down the bags next to the bed. “I made dinner!” she explained, noticing his confused look, and led him into the fairly small kitchen.

Ray sat by the table and let Tina bring him the food, even though he did argue that he had two very much healthy hands and could’ve gotten it himself. A plate of salad was placed in front of him and he looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. “Just because I’m a rabbit doesn’t mean I like salad.”

“Do you want something else?” Tina asked, her wolf ears flattening to her hairline.

“No. I like salad,” Ray grinned.

“Stupid bunny!” she laughed, smacking him over the head. Ray continued grinning and dug right into the tasty vegetables, stuffing his cheeks and Tina couldn’t hold back a laugh; he looked like a real rabbit. Or a hamster, with those puffed out cheeks. He shot her a look, but she just shrugged, giggling still. He finished the food, refusing more even as Tina nagged him.

“’m tired,” he told her and she nodded immediately.

“Jet lag?”

“Yeah… sorry…”

“Don’t apologize, stupid. Go to sleep, today must’ve been a long day.” Ray couldn’t agree more, retreating into his designated room. The jet lag was hitting him like a brick wall and he was glad that Geoff drove him straight here.

He almost tripped over one of his bags before ending up in the bed. Sleep came quicker than he could stop it. Not that he wanted to, anyway.

\---

Ray awoke to a loud sound on his right. His hand automatically went there, fingers searching for the source of the annoying sound which made his brow scrunch up in discomfort.

His fingers curled around his phone and brought it to his face – he had to squint at the brightness, but it was better than not seeing anything at all on the small screen -, looking at the unknown caller ID. He frowned, picking up and pressing the iPhone to his ear. “Hello?” he grumbled, his voice gruff from sleep.

“Hey, Ray, did I wake you up?” a distantly familiar voice ringed almost apologetically in his sleep-hazed mind.

“Geoff?” he guessed blindly. He cheered mentally when he got it right on the first try.

“Yeah, hey man. Sorry, I thought you were up already. Just uh… just wanted to ask if you wanted a quick tour of the office before work starts?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’d be nice, thanks,” Ray said, nodding to himself as he rubbed the crust out of his eyes.

“Okay, can you come, then?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

The phone started beeping, indicating that the call ended. Ray let the phone fall from his grasp and then, with a groan, pushed himself up from the bed. He rummaged through one of his bags for some clean clothes. He had been so beat yesterday that he didn’t even put on his pajamas.

His sensitive nose picked up a tasty smell coming from the kitchen; Tina was no doubt already up and cooking breakfast. He dressed in a random graphic T-shirt he fished out of his bag first and a pair of black pants. Finding his toothbrush and paste was a little harder, he had to throw out contents of the whole bag before he finally triumphantly grasped… a bottle of mouthwash. Because the toothbrush and paste were in another bag.

He went through another bag until he found them, muttering under his breath as he went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth quickly. He didn’t even use the stupid mouthwash. He left the stuff in a small cup standing on the sink. Then he made his way to the kitchen.

“Good morning, bunny!” Tina greeted him, already sitting by the table with a plate of bacon and bread.

“Morning,” Ray nodded to her. “Real food!” he exclaimed then, stealing a stripe of bacon from her plate as he went to the counter to retrieve his own plate.

“Hey!” she protested loudly, pouting at him. He shrugged, sitting apposite of her. Ray started eating, wanting to finish quickly so he wouldn’t make Geoff wait (more than he already did – thanks, mouthwash). “Why the rush?” Tina asked, eating her portion at a much more rational pace.

“Gotta go to work,” Ray said through a mouthful. “Geoff wants to give me a tour of the office so I don’t-“

“-run around like a scared bunny?” she butted in with a grin. “Sorry. Okay, no more rabbit jokes,” she said, raising her hands in defeat when Ray just glared at her.

She was just as great in person as on Skype.

\---

The walk to work was fast, Ray hurrying because of Geoff. He didn’t really think he wanted to piss off his new boss, much less on the first day of actual work. And especially not if the said boss had horns that could make a mush out of him. He definitely did not want that.

Geoff was awaiting him in front of the building, waving at him as soon as he noticed him coming.

“Good morning,” Ray greeted.

“Good morning,” Geoff replied. “Come one, we’ve only got a bit of time until we’re recording.” Geoff beckoned him inside and Ray obediently followed after him. Twenty minutes later, Ray had general knowledge of the place, and man was it big! He was pretty sure he’d get lost at least a few times.

But right now, he didn’t need to worry about it; he was sitting at his new desk in their office. The desk was fairly bland, but he was sure it’d get covered in junk and random game cases in no time flat.

And the guys he was working with were very nice as well, even if they did make Ray a little bit anxious (he’d not admit it was actually fear coursing through his veins). The all fell into the category of predators, maybe except Gavin (but birds were predators as well, in some cases. Ray wasn’t a biologist and sure as hell didn’t want to start a career as one, so he didn’t know) and it was dubious in Geoff’s case. The others, however…

There was Ryan and Ray was sure his horns would be able to slice right through him and barbecue him on an open fire.

Jack, who was a lion – even though Ray was sure rabbits did not live anywhere near lions in nature, it was obvious Jack could devour him in one and a half gulps.

Gavin was a bird, that didn’t change in the past three hours; but he seemed harmless and nice enough. Ray wasn’t sure how he managed to stay so calm around all these predators, much less actually fight (mock or not) with Michael!

Michael was a cat. But it didn’t end there; he was very loud and easily agitated. Ray didn’t want to get on his bad side. Ever.

So Ray kept to himself, letting his acquired gaming skills speak instead. He did make some comments here and there, though (a habit that was a courtesy of all the hours spent on Skype with Tina while they played games together). He was glad they made some of the guys laugh.

\---

To Ray’s own great surprise, he got (mostly) used to the Achievement Hunter office fairly quickly. Really, he was just glad that he no longer jumped out of his seat when Jack yawned or Geoff (whose desk was right next to him) stretched his arms.

It took more than a bit of creativity to explain these jumps. Obviously, these guys didn’t give a single shit – Geoff’s words – about the predator-prey chain. When he said that, Ray’s brain just kind of shut down momentarily, even though he was actually thinking about at least a hundred different things at once.

No chain?

Did that mean he had nothing to fear?

They… wouldn’t pick on him?

No fights?

No…? Chain?

It was quite a bit to take in and when he finally snapped out of all the noise generating in his head, Ryan was towering over him with a glass of water. “You okay?” he asked, pushing the glass into Rays’ slightly trembling hands. The Puerto Rican gratefully downed it all at once, looking down at the glass afterwards.

“Yeah, of course!” he replied when he realized that Ryan was still standing in front of him, awaiting an answer. He could also feel the piercing stares of the other four that gazed at the scene in concern. For once, the attention didn’t make bile rise in his throat. “Just… thought about something, sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Ryan asked, smiling at him. He took the glass and went to place it away.

Because you should? Ray shrugged and sat down on his chair again. It’d take a long time to get used to thinking about the predator hybrids as anything else than a threat. But these guys – and no one else in the whole company, for that matter – never expressed him any ill will.

If they were serious, like really serious, then this’d be the Heaven on Earth that he had dreamt of.

\---

There’s no such thing as Heaven. Not on Earth, not anywhere else, and Ray’s dream of one was once again shattered by the sharp blades of reality.

How could he be so naïve; after all the time and stuff he went through? He should’ve known that Roosterteeth was no different than the others.

“Huh, so you’re Ray? I knew you had to be as pathetic as you sounded. And look at you, a pathetic little bunny! Are you gonna run away like the fucking coward your animal is?”

Deadly razors called words gnawed at Ray’s skin, got under and made his insides feel like a pile of goo smushed together to fill his skin. His teeth sunk into his bottom lip, tears pricked the corners of his eyes; he had forgotten how painful it was to be degraded by a hybrid that was no doubt superior to him.

It was a new intern.

A guy called Nick or something like that – Ray couldn’t remember clearly even though Geoff told him about him. Ray was about to go to Joel’s office to ask him about filming the next week’s AHWU (Gavin’s idea), when he almost bumped into Nick. He looked like he was holding a hard drive - he was probably taking videos for editing.

“Not gonna even answer, huh? Pathetic,” he snarled, voice sharp like his eyes, glaring at him. He pushed past the smaller man, shoving him into the wall more than a little roughly.

He must’ve really like calling people pathetic, Ray thought absently, eyes focused on the guy’s back and his bright ginger tail swishing around.

He better hurry up and get to Joel – he had a lot of work left to do for the day and he wasn’t sure how long that whole exchange lasted.

He rubbed his upper arm. It felt like hours, painful hours.

In reality, three minutes passed.

\---

Ray didn’t really like leaving the Achievement hunter office after that. He liked to stay in and keep working during the lunch break so he could go home and surprise Tina with some dinner when she came back from her own work. It was mostly takeout or McDonald’s, but on rare occasions, he actually cooked something (even if it was just mac and cheese or some such).

He didn’t want to bump into Nick again, not if he could help it.

But Nick apparently wanted to bump into him. Whenever Ray was left alone in the office (mostly during the lunch breaks when everyone else went out to eat), he’d mysteriously know about it and come, often taking a seat on Gavin’s or Geoff’s desks and talking to him until the others got back from lunch.

Well, ‘talk’.

It was honestly mostly him swearing at Ray and Ray ignoring (or trying to) him in favor of editing (or trying to). He’d leave before the guys came back, though – Ray thought it extremely odd, but his conscious always nagged that he should be thinking about Nick as little as possible.

\---

Ray was busy editing the video he had been assigned with, headphones sitting on his head and mouse grasped in one hand, the other one holding a burger to his mouth. The other guys came back from lunch a few minutes ago. Ray stayed in the office to finish editing the video, and just got it finished. He wanted to record in peace, and not with an unfinished video in the back of his mind. They brought him a burger and fries from McDonald’s even when he didn’t ask for (he was pleasantly surprised).

He saved the video on a hard drive and started uploading it, leaning back in his chair and stretching his arms. His neck hurt; he should stop sitting so slouched over. Ha, as if he didn’t tell himself that already (a lot of times).

“Hey, Ray?”

“Hm? Yeah?” Ray turned to the left, to the source to the voice. Jack.

“Can we talk to you for a bit?”

Ray scrunched his brow, nodding nevertheless and taking his headphones off. “Sure.” He pondered what he did wrong. The video was supposed to go up today, right?

“So uh… How do I go about this…?” Jack trailed off, looking around the office; Ray followed his line of sight to the other guys. Oh no. He must’ve fucked up, big time. It was even worsened by the fact that he couldn’t remember what he even did wrong.

Beating around the bush was strumming on Ray’s nerves; he was a small nerve-wrack in his seat.

“We’re together,” Michael said.

Wait – what?

“…what?” escaped Ray’s lips. He cocked his head in confusion, watching as Michael’s face turned as red as it did whenever he filmed a Rage quit.

“W-well – you were taking a long-ass time so I jumped to the subject,” he tried to defend himself.

“Well then,” Jack shrugged. “We wanted to tell you, Ray. You don’t find it weird, do you?”

Ray automatically shook his head with a ‘no’. Thinking about it, it wasn’t weird at all, maybe just uncommon. But Ray could see all the advantages immediately; there must’ve been a lot of love between the five of them.

Love Ray couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous of. But it wasn’t his place to be jealous. He felt happy for them. After all, it must’ve taken a lot of patience and guts to make a five-way relationship work.

“That’s good, because we don’t work with people that are against,” Geoff said almost offhandedly, but Ray could feel the slight warning behind it. He didn’t care; how could he when he was gay as well?

\---

The next time Jack asked to talk, maybe a month or two later, Ray was one hundred percent positive he had fucked something up, somewhere. What else could they possibly want to talk about? But wasn’t that Geoff’s work, as their boss? Whatever, his position meant nothing in the AH office.

“What’s up?” Ray asked, taking his headphones off again. They just finished recording Minecraft Let’s play and he had been sending the footage to Gavin.

“Well, what I’m about to ask will sound extremely weird, okay? Don’t freak out,” Jack pleaded.

“Weirder than Gavin’s gibberish?” Ray joked. Jack didn’t laugh.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, then.” Ray wondered absently why the guys always made Jack talk to him when it came to serious stuff.

“So you know how we’re together, right?”

“Yeah,” Ray nodded, trying to guess where Jack was going with this. Thankfully, nowhere near him and fucking up, Ray hoped.

“Well, we’ve been thinking about adding someone to our relationship,” Jack explained.

“Why are you telling me this? Your relationship is your thing, I don’t think I’ve a say in it,” Ray said, confusedly staring at the other guys.

“He means you, you knob!” Gavin butted in. “He’s asking if you wanna date us! Why do we make Jack tell him about these things? He sucks at it!” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes.

The small argument between him and Jack flew right over Ray’s head. He thought about the meaning of those words, and if he heard right. He must’ve been quiet for a pretty long time, because Jack asked him, shaking his shoulder, “So what do you say?”

Ray gnawed at his bottom lip. He had no idea how to date, much less five other men! He had no idea what people in relationships even did. Tina had a few boyfriends, but Ray didn’t really care about them all that much, only when Tina asked him for help (great strategy, Tina, ask a virgin introverted gay about relationship advice).

“I’ve never dated anyone,” Ray confessed, lowering his head. His ear flattened against his head and he toyed with his hands.

“Do you wanna try?”

“Yea- yeah… Yeah.”

\---

Ray’s first kiss was like a fairytale. He used to think that someone else’s tongue in your mouth would be gross, but he couldn’t get enough of Gavin’s. Or Michael’s, or Ryan’s, or Jack’s or Geoff’s.

After the first kiss, he couldn’t get enough and he somehow liked the feeling, the fluttering of imaginary butterflies in his stomach when lips pressed against his own.

He had never felt happier.

\---

“Wow, I can’t believe they can actually stand working with you!” Nick’s voice held a strong tinge of mock surprise or unbelievement, as if he really believed in the words he spoke. Maybe he did. He probably did.

Ray didn’t bother with a reply, although a snarky comment was sitting on the very tip of his tongue, guarded by the impenetrable wall of clenched teeth and pursed lips.

“Silent again, bunny?” Nick questioned. “Well, bunnies are primitive and stupid animals that don’t have a way to make real noises, do they? I guess it’s understandable…”

Ray glanced up at the intel, sighing because he couldn’t hear the video audio over his senseless rambles and turning the volume up was not an option for his sensitive ears. His gaze wandered to the door. The doorknob was turning – Ray watched it transfixed, as the door opened and Geoff appeared in it, taking in the sight of the office.

Nick was still talking. “Honestly, I like you more when you’re quiet; your voice is just sooooo annoying! You should just-“

“He should what?” Geoff asked from the doorway.

The way Nick literally jumped off the desk would’ve been quite comical to Ray, were his mind not preoccupied with thinking about Geoff. Surely, he’d agree with Nick.

“Ray?”

Ray flinched in his seat, taking his headphones off and placing them onto the table. “Yes?” he replied tentatively.

“Has Nick been bothering you?”

Ray, stunned by the question and lack of yelling, could only nod curtly, shakily. Geoff nodded back, as if in deep thought. “Nick, get out of here,” he commanded sternly and the man literally sprinted out of the office.

“Are you okay, Ray?” Geoff asked, placing a hand on Ray’s shoulder. “I can’t believe no one has noticed it – and we saw his leaving so many times!” Geoff kept rambling on, a soothing white noise in the back of Ray’s mind as he thought about it.

“No one has ever stood up for me,” he muttered, voicing his main train of thought. No one. Not even his mom.

“What are you talking about? Ray?” Geoff sunk to his knees in front of Ray’s chair, hands moving up to the younger’s face to make him look at him.

Ray was quiet for a few minutes; it was too quiet, eerily so, almost. “Hybrids always pushed me around and… bullied me.” It sounded off on his tongue as he told Geoff. “All because I’m a prey and I’ve always been around predators. I’m sorry, it’s stupid…” he trailed off, eyes wandering away from Geoff and the sad look on his face, as if his whole miserable excuse for a life was his fault.

“Ray, don’t apologize,” Geoff started, not knowing where to go from there. He just knew that he didn’t want to listen to Ray speak in that guilty tone anymore. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Ray shook his head, lowering it and biting his lip. No longer could he hold the tears that came gushing out of his eyes.

“Oh – oh no… Ray, it’s okay,” Geoff stammered, awkwardly hugging Ray from his position and patting his back in an attempt to soothe him. “Ho one’ll hurt you anymore, I promise,” he cooed. “I promise.”

Ray sobbed gently into the crook of Geoff’s neck, his hands weakly holding onto the front of his shirt. It was the first time Ray has ever cried about his position in the food chain or all the wrongs ever done to him, and it certainly was the first time he ever cried holding onto someone else. He didn’t even cry in front of his mom. Not since he was six.

He couldn’t believe how much the warmth of the embrace and the softness of Geoff’s words were helping him feel better and calm down.

\---

With Geoff’s help, Ray managed to tell the same (well, he left out the crying because that was just embarrassing) to their other four boyfriends, so they would know and also so that Ray would feel a bit better when it would all be out and not bottled up inside him like it was before.

They all understood, promising that they’d be there for him. Jack also made him promise in return that he’d immediately tell them if they did anything – “anything at all, got it?” – that’d make him even a little uncomfortable.

Ray couldn’t fathom the idea; from the beginning, all they did was make him feel like he belonged.

“We’ve kicked Nick out, by the way,” Geoff commented offhandedly, as if it wasn’t a big deal, but Ray heard the anger underneath. There was a collective, disgusted grunt from the other four, as if the name was venomous.

Ray looked down at his hands, making sure they were still attached, because it was uncanny how lucky he had been to end up with five such great boyfriends.

\---

It took Ray twenty two years, give or take the few before he went to the kindergarden, to realize, no, to teach himself that pointy horns and sharp teeth and pointy ears weren’t things to be scared of, that the nature’s food chain wasn’t a crippling trip to live by, that everybody didn’t hate him.

It took him twenty two years and five men to learn the happiness he should’ve been experiencing from life years ago.

It took him twenty two years and five amazing boyfriends that always stood by him and supported him on his bumpy road to realize that he wasn’t just a prey.

He was a hybrid. No one was better than him, predator or not.


End file.
